[3] University of the Sciences traced its history to February 1821, when 68 apothecaries met in Philadelphia's Carpenters' Hall to establish improved scientific standards and to develop programs to train more competent apprentices and students.

They formalized their new association through a constitution, which declared their intent to establish a school of pharmacy to enhance their vocation and to "guard the drug market from the introduction of spurious, adulterated, deteriorated or otherwise mischievous articles, which are too frequently forced into it".

"[8] In 1916, PCP substantially expanded its student enrollment and scope via a merger with another prominent Philadelphia pharmacy school.

PCP's president at the time, Howard B. French, noted in his statement of August 19, 1916, announcing the consolidation, that “…after careful consideration, it was decided that it would be better, in the interest of and for promoting higher pharmaceutical education in the city of Philadelphia, that the Medico-Chirurgical department of pharmacy should be consolidated with Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the oldest and largest institution of its kind in the United States.”[11] While PCP initially emphasized the biological and chemical sciences as mainstays of the pharmacy curriculum, it later instituted separate curricula in three other areas: bacteriology, biology, and chemistry.

In 1920, to reflect its broader scope, the institution changed its name to Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, with state authorization to grant not only the baccalaureate degree but also the master's and doctorate in all four disciplines.

Primarily a commuter campus in its early days, the institution gradually transformed into one in which residential life and extracurricular activities played increasing roles in student development.

[13] The same year, USP doubled the size of its campus when it acquired an adjacent, vacant industrial site—the home of the original Breyers Ice Cream factory, which closed its Philadelphia operation in the early 1990s.

ft. academic building, the McNeil Science and Technology Center, which was a mixed-use facility housing classrooms, lecture halls, and teaching and research laboratories, was officially dedicated in September 2006.

Not only was this a more descriptive name, but it also helped eliminate ambiguity between the school and a primary standards organization in the pharmaceutical field, United States Pharmacopeia, well known for its USP label.

[20] In December 2020 the university's credit rating was downgraded due to "unstainable" withdrawals from its endowment funds to pay debt obligations.

[25] First created in 1820, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) established, and has delineated since that date, the standards for manufacturing drugs across America.

However, according to the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, "at the 1830 [U.S. Pharmacopeial] convention, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy presented for consideration 'a complete revised copy of the Pharmacopeia elaborated with ability and great industry, and the Committee accepted, after deliberate examination, nearly all of the suggestions' (U.S.P.

[31] In 1868, John M. Maisch, PCP professor (1866–1893) and dean (1879–1893), proposed the creation of a Pharmaceutical Board to be appointed by the governor of each state.

Later renamed Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy, this comprehensive reference work remains widely used throughout the world.

[42] In September 2022, the interim president of St. Joseph's informed the university community that all former USciences undergraduate programs would be transitioned to the main Hawk Hill campus.

[49] Among its collection are the holdings of the Leopold Helfand Rare Book and Archives Room, which include seventeenth and eighteenth-century botanicals, books once belonging to Benjamin Franklin and Sir Isaac Newton, as well as the theses of Dr. Eli Lilly, Sir Henry S. Wellcome and Silas M. Burroughs, written in their own hand.

[50] In December 2024 a reginal new site reported that St. Joseph's planned to vacate the building by the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.

[45] Graduates of University of the Sciences include the first woman conferred a pharmacy degree in the U.S., as well as founders of, or executives at, what would become six of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies:[51] USciences' athletic teams were known as the Devils.